I gotta tell ya, when we throw technical issues at you and ask for your Feedback, the amount of emails we are getting grows each time. We received some great feedback on the use of debit cards (that to most front desk personnel look exactly like credit cards) and the “holds” put on them.  I will put together some of the responses as soon as I contact those who emailed us. Just so you know, we use your comments/emails to put together articles for our Hotel & Restaurant Technology UPDATE Magazine, but would never use anyone’s name unless we received their approval (simply said, we would never share your emails unless you told us it was okay). We are also pursuing this topic with the credit card processors and asking them to start addressing this issue. If you missed the last Siegel Sez, then please go to ../../../Trends/UpdatePlus/index.html and check out the archive for Siegel Sez. 

As much fun as Siegel Sez via Hotel-Online is for us to do, you can be assured that there truly is power in the written/typed word. I will keep you abreast of what is going on. If you have comments you want to share, please email me at rsiegel@updateplus.com.   Remember if you don’t yet receive our printed magazine as well, then either go to http://www.updateplus.com/or send an email with your pertinent information to info@updateplus.com. It is a free publication for those “inside” the hospitality industry. 

Okay, here is the bi-weekly technical wrap up that is about 10 days late.  But, after this week, I promise to be back on schedule (another New Year’s resolution). Let’s see how long it takes for this promise to be broken. I will see you at the end with this week’s attempt at you-know-what! 

Now here is the news. 

Top o' The News 

Welcome to the new millennium! Or not, depending on your beliefs about the debate on whether it just started or won’t be here for another year, since there was no year zero. Woody’s Windows Watch newsletter had the best response on this:

“But there wasn’t a year one either. The current year-dating system wasn’t invented until the first century. Ah, you say, but there is a theoretical year one. True, but the birth it is supposed to count from is, according to historians, at least 2004 years ago. Moreover, January 1st is somewhat capricious and was adjusted in the 18th century (in England; it was done earlier on the continent). The point of course is that the calendar is arbitrary and if the overwhelming majority of the world thinks the millennium started this past January 1, then, by golly, it did. (Although if you also want to party next year - go for it!). Of course, we could always compromise and declare the start of the millennium to be July 1. Too bad 2000 is a leap year, otherwise the compromise would have the millennium start at noon which would be convenient for those of us who don’t like to stay up late.” 

So was it all worth it? Unquestionably. Significant bugs were found in many systems in testing, fixes were developed, released and installed. Hotels finally had a real incentive to take an accurate inventory of their hardware, software and building systems, replace obsolete and unused items and generally tune up their systems and asset management procedures. And their updated and improved contingency plans will be around to prove their worth in any future emergency, whether system-related or arising from external sources. 

So now we have a more modern and consistent systems base in many hotels, a better understanding of just how essential systems are to every aspect of the operation, and better preparation for emergencies from any source.  And, finally, a little more free time to concentrate on new ways to use these tools to make a real difference to our operations and efficiency. It’s going to be a great year. 

According to a new Technographics Report from Forrester Research, Inc., the online travel market continues to boom due to a combination of new bookers and the increasing amounts they spend, but the travel sites face the same challenge as other online retailers—most consumers are not loyal. Web travelers rely upon convenience, abundant information, and low prices found online, and they are willing to research multiple sites for the best deals. 

Forrester breaks them into disloyal, curious, and loyal bookers. Disloyal bookers research and book at multiple sites, searching to find the best deals. Curious bookers research multiple sites yet return to the same site, while loyal customers research and book at one site. 

Even with an overwhelming majority of disloyal travel bookers, some sites attract more loyalty than others. Online travel agencies attract the one-stop-shopper; suppliers have difficulty attracting loyal bookers, but successfully lure disloyal bookers away from agencies with special deals available exclusively online. Although portals have the greatest reach of all travel sites, they get the lowest percentage of bookers from all three segments. 

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Pegasus Systems appointed Mark C. Wells as Executive Vice President. Mr. Wells, who has served as a director on Pegasus’ board since 1996, will relinquish his seat upon assuming his new responsibilities. His earlier positions include Senior VP of Marketing at Choice Hotels International, twelve years with Promus and various earlier positions with Days Inn and Holiday Inns. 

Internet start-up Whiplash, Inc., developing an online marketplace for leisure travel, has appointed Lynne Rosenbaum as President and Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Rosenbaum has more than 14 years of executive management experience with travel technology companies, including Apollo Travel Services and United Airlines, and was named as one of the “One Hundred Most Powerful Women in Travel” by Travel Agent magazine in 1996 and 1997. 

Eltrax named its chief marketing officer (CMO), Denise Grey, as President of the company’s new applications service provider (ASP) business unit. Under Ms. Grey’s leadership, Eltrax released three ASP solutions last quarter (iMessaging, HRe-source and InnDemand), and plans to launch at least one ASP solution per quarter in 2000. 

Gazelle Systems, a leading provider of CRM software for the restaurant industry, announced the appointment of Jeffrey Stamen, CEO of Syncra Systems, to its Board of Directors effective immediately. Prior to joining Syncra, Stamen was senior VP with Oracle Corp. where he was responsible for the OLAP Products Division. During his tenure with Oracle he served as president of two business groups within Information Resources Inc. and led the development of InfoScan. 

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Springer-Miller Systems' new sms|World Internet Reservations module is now out of beta test and available to its properties. sms|World allows real-time availability display and booking, as well as accepting brochure requests and guest reservations directly from a property's website. 

MicroScript Corp., developers of a universal interface-development tool, has retired the MicroScript name and is now using its parent company's name, New Era of Networks, Inc. MicroScript was acquired by NEON in June 1999. 

RESERVATIONS

Lexington Services launched a new Internet Booking Engine that provides real-time booking for visitors to its member’s hotel Web sites. The service can be initiated simply by creating a hyperlink to Lexington Services’ home page, which then allows visitors to hotel Web sites to book and confirm their reservations instantly. 

Hilton Hotels Corp. and wireless Internet vendor OpenGrid, Inc., aim to be the first to provide hotel booking functionality from any Internet-ready mobile device - cell phone, Palm Pilot or whatever. Guests will be able to set personal preferences, check room availability and book or update reservations in real time from any location; roll-out is targeted for first quarter 2000. Other OpenGrid partners include Motorola, Cendant and Pegasus Systems. 

Wal-Mart launched its own online travel site, developed by Quantum Leap Communications and offering customers a simple low fare finder and air, car, and hotel booking abilities. 

Motel 6 officially debuted its online reservations system, allowing travelers to make reservations directly through the brand’s Website, with online confirmations. Initially, customers can book up to three rooms per night, with a maximum stay per property of seven nights. 

Having just spun off its Sabre subsidiary, American Airlines has awarded it and PricewaterhouseCoopers a $70 million, multi- year contract to enhance the airline’s reservation processes and systems. The project is expected to reduce booking time by almost 25% for customers calling into American’s reservations offices. The system will eventually work seamlessly across all of the airline’s organizations such as aa.com, AAdvantage Customer Service, and the airports. 

Holiday Villas, of Kissimmee, Florida, has contracted with InnLink Central Reservation Services for global distribution system services. InnLink, a division of ShoLodge, Inc., is a provider of various private-label reservation services, including voice and internet. 

Expedia.com has dropped the requirement for visitors to register before being able to browse for flights, car rentals, and hotel rooms, or subscribe to the Expedia Fare Tracker newsletter. 

British on-line travel company ebookers.com has acquired Geotours AS, an independent Norwegian discounted fares travel agency, and STT Airways AB, a Swedish travel group and holding company for online discount fare agency Biljettakuten AB. This follows its December acquisitions of Take-Off Reisen and Cosmos in Germany, and of Lloyd Tours in Helsinki, Finland; the company also has ongoing web sites in the UK and France, with additional operations in Switzerland and Ireland. Ebookers has placed a strong focus on the Scandinavian countries since they have the highest penetration of internet usage per capita in the world. Research company eStats, measuring active internet users, places Finland, Norway and Sweden at an average of 29.0% in 1999, substantially ahead of the UK at 13.1% and the US at 21.5%. 

Bass Hotels, along with seven new companies, is investing approximately $31M in the consumer e-commerce company. In addition to providing funding, Bass will support lastminute.com in the development of its rapidly growing business, both in the UK and internationally. The agreement provides lastminute.com’s 600,000 plus registered users in Europe with last-minute room bookings at participating properties from Bass Hotel’s 2,800 hotels around the world. 

Twenty-three US- and foreign-based carriers have signed letters of intent to become charter associates in the new Web-based travel business being developed by United Air Lines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines. The new site, announced in November, will be the Web’s most consumer-centered travel site, offering the Internet’s most complete choice of travel products and services at prices equal to or lower than those available from any other travel source. The name for the Web site, which is scheduled to launch during the second quarter of this year, is expected to be unveiled within 90 days. 

REVENUE MANAGEMENT

Tickets.com, Inc. an on-line provider of live entertainment tickets and event information has contracted with Talus Solutions to develop a revenue management-driven approach to event ticket pricing.  The new product, Dynamic Pricing, will let entertainment organizations build case-specific pricing structures in which ticket pricing will vary dynamically based on consumer demand. 

SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING

Pioneering on-line music provider MP3.com, Inc. has moved into the booking market by acquiring online event-planning web site seeUthere.com, in a move intended to help MP3.com artists to organize and produce their own events. SeeUthere.com’s functions include online ticketing, customized event web sites, automated invitation/RSVP management, and online reports of ticket sales and revenue; these will continue to be available to individuals, corporations and non-profits. 

EventSource.com and American Airline’s Group and Meeting Travel division are partnering to provide a Web-enabled application to manage air transportation costs. American will leverage EventSource.com’s proprietary Internet technology to offer group air discounts and cost data with meeting site and hotel booking services, allowing planners to utilize one service to calculate and negotiate the cost of meetings quickly and easily. 

Warwick International Hotels has signed with SecurFone America’s IXATA.COM subsidiary to use its RFP Express service to administer solicitation responses to corporation and travel agency requests for preferred and negotiated rate programs. 

At its annual Kickoff meeting last week, Newmarket International announced its revenue grew by 43 percent in 1999 to over $40 million. Newmarket installed a total of 516 systems in 1999. The increase was attributed to the ahead-of-schedule launch of the company’s 7.2 product line, which includes the hotel cluster sales solution Delphi Multi-Property Edition, and the upgraded enterprise application Global SFA, which distributes data to linked properties from a single global sales database. 

Ramada selected WYNTRAC® Software to provide meeting planners and hotels with automated, registration system. The initiative will provide Ramada with WYNTRAC’s Web-based housing and registration software.  WYNTRAC utilizes WizCom’s GDS connectivity and transactions processing to allow Ramada properties and event planners capture and transfer reservation information. 

POINT OF SALE/ACTIVITY TRACKING

ETravnet.com Inc. has formed a joint venture with RestaurantRow.com to operate “Rezconnect,” a hybrid Internet/phone real-time international restaurant reservation system. ETravnet’s “net-to-phone” system allows customers to make reservations at any restaurant in RestaurantRow’s database, which covers 100,000 restaurants in over 7,000 cities in 47 countries. Under “net-to- phone” the user logs on through any ETravnet.com-enabled travel agency or corporate customer site; the internet command generates a telephone call to the restaurant, which responds through the telephone key pad to voice prompts. Users receive confirmation instantly on their computer screens. ETravnet.com expects to launch RezConnect in the first quarter of 2000. 

Sharp Electronics Corp. will integrate Geac Restaurant Systems software (the Remanco and CTC POS systems) into its point of sale system hardware for the restaurant and hospitality industry. 

Micros’ New Jersey-based NE distributor, Micros Retail Systems, has ordered Astea International’s ServiceAlliance customer resource management system to automate the management of its professional services.  These include helpdesk, field service, contract management, logistics, repairs, sales orders, project management and integration with the company’s financial system. Astea’s ServiceAlliance will also be integrated with Micros’ MAS 90 accounting package from Sage Software. Meanwhile, the parent company, MICROS Systems, Inc., purchased Laurel, MD-based Hayman Systems, its largest distributor in the U.S and Canada, and renamed it MICROS-Fidelio Southeast. 

Radiant Systems announced a new division of Radiant Systems—RetailEnterprise.com. RetailEnterprise plans to revolutionize how retailers operate by creating Internet destinations where retailers can leverage business applications, network with peers, and conduct business with supply chain partners. RetailEnterprise will launch the first two retail VSPs, CstoreEnterprise.com, for the petroleum/convenience store segment, and FoodEnterprise.com, for the food service segment, in the first quarter of 2000. 

Ameranth Technology Systems, a provider of Wireless Systems Solutions, and Restaurant Data Concepts, Inc.  (RDC), creators of POSitouch POS software announced they have reached an agreement on the creation of a new strategic alliance. Under the terms of the Ameranth-RDC agreement, RDC will integrate Ameranth’s 21st Century Restaurant ™ solutions and products into the POSitouch open-architecture POS software. 

A family-owned KFC franchise based in Texas has selected Ibertech’s Aloha QuickService at its point-of-sale for its 52 properties. The rollout of the Aloha POS includes a partnership with NCR Corporation, which is providing NCR 7454 POS workstations and printers as well as hardware installation and maintenance services. 

GUEST SERVICES

LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation has entered into a multi-year agreement with DIRECTV, Inc., that will bring DIRECTV programming to the more than 3,700 hotels and 400,000 rooms currently subscribing to LodgeNet cable television service.

Southeastern U.S. hotel operator JHM Hotels, Inc., has selected Wayport to provide Internet services for hotel guest rooms, meeting rooms and public areas, as well as operations. JHM currently has 23 properties across South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida; all installations are expected to be complete by March 31. 

In Argentina, Cablevision, the country’s largest cable TV operator, is establishing a residential pay-per-view service and an interactive video-on-demand service for hotels, using digital video systems from Massachusetts-based SeaChange International. 

Taking a local-area approach to managing Internet access, sentraNET has announced its inetHotel product, an Internet access service for hotel guests and meeting rooms. Based on sentraNET’s WAN management/services facilities and Tut Systems’ Expresso products (which use a single pair of the property’s existing phone cable to deliver high-speed Internet access) the inetHotel network is structured around centralized operation centers that support multiple properties and management companies over private network connections. Guest and hotel data traffic are securely separated on the property and over the public network to the operation centers. SentraNET claims that this approach provides higher performance and lower costs for guests and management companies than the more usual direct-to-Internet designs. 

RoomSystems, Inc., makers of high-tech minibars, unveiled RS-DataLink Version 3.0 as the first software to offer Internet collection as well as the ability to communicate using TCP/IP interface protocol with local and remote capability. RS-DataLink offers hotels “real time” data Internet connections and allows hotel managers and remote corporate management to manage all minibars in a single or multiple properties from the computer at their desks. 

PURCHASING

Hotelworks.com subsidiary The Leonard Parker Company has won contracts from Millennium Partners for purchasing, logistics and installation of all furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) plus operating supplies and equipment (OS&E) for four new Ritz-Carlton hotels in development. The hotels are located in Washington D.C., Georgetown, Downtown N.Y. in Battery Park, and Boston Common, for a total value of approximately $50 million. Negotiations are also in hand to provide similar services for additional properties in New York at Central Park South and Boston. 

Atlanta-based hsupply.com launched its Internet-based hospitality supplies procurement marketplace at the annual convention of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). Charter members include Stonebridge Companies, Noble Investment Group and U.S. Franchise Systems; hsupply.com will build customized online marketplaces for each management group. 

Effective immediately, Wyndham International will convert its food purchasing operations in the U.S. and the Caribbean to Sysco's proprietary Internet-based system, eSYSCO. Wyndham owns, leases, manages and franchises more than 300 hotels.

The ICE age (Internet Changes Everything) continues its relentless reshaping of hotel technology. Several major chains are investing heavily in programs to develop and implement a single-image inventory GDS/ASP-combined property management system that will shift total control, and technical responsibility, for room inventory away from the properties to the corporate office.  Thanks to the Internet this will allow the GDS (Remember when it was called the CRS?) and corporate Internet site to consistently sell the last room.  More importantly for the properties, however, this ASP (application service provider) solution can also reduce or eliminate many system expenses for hotels because they will need only browser PCs for PMS.

For many franchisees this means, (1) the end of big investments in hardware, operating systems and application software; (2) the elimination of lengthy employee training programs; and (3) a great reduction in the need for system expertise at the property level.  In this view of the future the corporate MIS department will maintain the PMS application-server for all chain properties and centrally distribute reports, provide email, furnish Internet portals, Internet reservations and home pages (as we are seeing at Cendant), and remove the overall system burden from many their franchisees. This technology is not new, but its chain implementation is, and beta sites are operational now. You can expect an in-depth article on this in the Spring UPDATE Magazine.

E-procurement is another significant addition to hotel life, and fast becoming the way properties and chains supply themselves with everything from sheetrock to salmon.  UPDATE has talked to ten different hospitality procurement dot-coms, each with its own unique industry niche and way of streamlining the purchasing process and saving properties money.  We will compare their offerings in future Updates.  But for now, these new e-commerce vendors are definitely worth your closer attention; you can email me at msquires@updateplus.com for more info.

Again, we will see you religiously every two weeks with a technology wrap-up.  It is one of the many New Year’s resolutions that I have made.  Another of my resolutions is to lose weight.  In fact, the counting already has begun:  It is now 8 days that I have had my new treadmill.  I have promised myself by day 21 I will have it out of the box and put together.  Okay, here is this week’s attempt at humor.